Comments

Khawaja's career batting average is less than Bresnan's... let's face it, he's only playing because of Warner's disciplinary lapses. How long before he gets dropped too?

Barnesy4444
on
July 18, 2013, 8:09 GMT

Hughes came in about the 14th over in the first innings, under pressure, 4 wickets for nothing and he looked very comfortable. It was a match changing innings and he ran out of partners. This was akin to batting at 3, so why would an out-of-form Khawaja bat at 3 instead of Hughes?

CapitalMarkets
on
July 17, 2013, 14:17 GMT

@Batmanian ... the statistics do not support bringing Khawaja in for Cowan, apart from the lack of natural justice in discarding someone becaused they were really unwell for half the contest. Using Trevor Bailey's definition of "good", "very good" and "great" batsmen as averaging >40, >45 and >50 respectively Australia have one great batsmen in Clarke at >51 (that's a tad higher than Viv Richards) but the other established five members of the top order are bunched between >31 (Cowan) and >35 (Watson and Haddin). Contrast this with the averages of England's big five: Cook >47, Pietersen >48, Trott >49, Bell >45 and Prior >43 and you can see that Australia "par score" for their best five batsmen is 156 versus England's 233. Khawaja (average >22 in test matches) is not going to help and I suspect they know that. Interestingly the statistics support reversing the tail, with Pattinson @9 (>28), Starc @10 (>27) and Siddle @11 (>15) superior batsmen to Swann >22, Finn >11 and Anderson >10.

The key issue for Australia is who bats #11. When the 10th wicket is responsible for 228 of the side's 576 runs it's critical to get that #11 spot right. Agar or Pattinson? It's a real head-scratcher for Boof and Pup.

mk4444
on
July 16, 2013, 17:03 GMT

The sort of Aussie hyperbole being heaped on Agar reminds me of when Khawaja came in in the last series and scored 30-odd. What has he done since? There's nothing easier than self deception and the Aus are the masters of it.

Batmanian
on
July 16, 2013, 15:54 GMT

Clarke Hughes Smith Haddin Agar Starc Siddle Pattinson is eminently sensible. Cowan looks doomed. If Khawaja comes in, three looks too much for him, but I'd be loath to move Hughes up now. So, with no Warner, Khawaja at three now looks likely; he needs to be persisted with for two or three tests if they do that, by which time the series may be lost. But maybe he will click.